A big year for Marvel’s First Family…
You might have heard rumblings about this but now we can tell you officially: Marvel in 2025 will continue its yearlong Facsimile Edition concept, with Fantastic Four and The X-Men getting the kind of treatment that Secret Wars and The Amazing Spider-Man did in 2024.
Specifically, we’ll see the first 12 issues of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four — which in 1961 launched the Marvel Age (and Marvel’s Silver Age) — monthly, beginning in January. For The X-Men, it will be the Dark Phoenix Saga — and you can click here to read all the details about that.
In addition, as in 2024, there will be wild-card slots that will allow Marvel to produce other Facsimile Editions not connected to those titles. (This year, it was an assortment of mutants, Godzilla, Kraven the Hunter and Captain America.) For January, it will be a new printing of The Amazing Spider-Man #129 Facsimile Edition. Click here for the deets.
Dig the solicitation info, which will be officially released later in October:
FANTASTIC FOUR #1 FACSIMILE EDITION – NEW PRINTING!
Written by STAN LEE
Penciled by JACK KIRBY
Cover by JACK KIRBY • VARIANT COVER BY TBA • FOIL VARIANT COVER ALSO AVAILABLE
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed super-hero storytelling forever when they introduced Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Susan and Johnny Storm. Together, the adventurous quartet blast off on an experimental rocket flight – only to be bombarded by life-altering cosmic rays! Reed becomes the elastic Mister Fantastic! Ben transforms into the rocky Thing! Sue turns into an Invisible Girl! And Johnny flames on as the Human Torch! They’ll use their incredible powers to help humankind – starting by fending off the menace of the Mole Man! The book that started it all is re-presented in full – including its original ads! It’s the next best thing to buying FANTASTIC FOUR #1 off the stands back in 1961! Reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #1.
32 PGS./All Ages… $4.99
On Sale 1/8
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Several thoughts:
— Why Fantastic Four? Why, there’s a big movie next year, silly.
— This is the second time Marvel has released FF#1 as a Facsimile Edition. The first time was in 2018. The other issues have never been released as FEs.
— Marvel is doing these yearlong runs so they can collect the issues — ads and all — into Gallery Edition hardcovers, which are slightly smaller than Bronze Age treasury editions.
— The foil cover and variant cover prices have yet to be announced.
— Hopefully, Marvel will take a cue from DC and move the UPC symbol to the back.
— Obligatory Price Comparison: It’s highly unlikely you’ll ever come across an unslabbed original, but a slabbed 9.6-grade copy sold just last month through Heritage Auctions for $2,040,000, including buyer’s premium. A 2018 Facsimile Edition recently sold on eBay for just shy of $50.
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MORE
— X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX SAGA to Be Reprinted as FACSIMILE EDITIONS Through 2025. Click here.
— AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #129: Marvel to Publish New Printing of FACSIMILE EDITION. Click here.
